Human waste collection bags, principally comprising faecal collection bags and urine collection bags, are known articles of manufacture that are designed to be worn principally by incontinence sufferers and in particular by bedridden patients. Such human waste collection bags are attached to the perianal or uro-genital region of the wearer and are intended to entrap and immediately contain faecal material and other bodily discharges.
Representative prior art in the field of faecal collection bags includes the following documents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,734,096 and 3,522,807 disclose faecal collection bags provided with adhesive tabs to support the attachment of the collection bag to the human body. GB 2 152 387, GB 2 215 605, SE 8 104 934 and EP 245 064 all disclose collection bags which are made from plastic materials and rely on an principally flat adhesive flange for attachment to and seal with the human body. JP 8-117261 discloses a faecal collection bag, which is attached to the body by sheets of material cut to surround the lower parts of the body similar to a piece of underwear. U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,656 discloses a two piece faecal collection bag. The piece providing the collection capacity can be emptied or replaced while the other piece remains engaged in body contact.
Representative disclosures of urine collection bags are, for instance, found in the following documents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,377 discloses a collection bag for urine specimens from children. U.S. Pat. No. 3,292,626 discloses a urine collection bag for female infants.
Some prior art documents disclose devices for multiple incontinence: For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,577,989 discloses a device for female users comprising a plastic bag for the collection of both, urine and faeces. The bag is provided with a flange portion to cover the urinary duct and the anus, the flange comprising elastic straps for attachment to the body. U.S. Pat. No. 3,532,093 discloses a collector for urine and faeces comprising two attached bags for the respective collection of urine and faeces. Those devices, however, do not comprise any absorbent means within or outside these collection bags. Hence in use these devices easily become a source of leakage and/or of malodour.
The prior art further describes a multitude of diapers, for babies as well as for adults, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,003 and in WO 93/16669. Despite the enormous progress made in providing high capacity absorbent cores, one may however want to provide for some user groups a urine and/or faecal collection bag. As compared to conventional diapers human waste collection bags apart from potentially providing larger capacity in particular provide the benefit of better separation of human waste from the skin of the wearer. Such separation from the skin may also allow for longer wearing times of the device giving a comfort and environmental benefit.
A considerable group of users of incontinence devices is both, urine and faecal incontinent. Those user's namely include babies, but also unhealthy and elderly people. The degree of incontinence is highly individual and may be different with regard to the different kinds of incontinence, i.e. urine or faecal. For example, a wearer may experience slight urine incontinence and severe faecal incontinence or vice versa. Hence, there is a need for a device which can be provided to suit such individual incontinence needs.
As generally known in the art with regard to adhesively attached human waste collection bags, detachment and following reattachment of another human waste collection bag is typically stressful for the skin of the wearer to which the human waste collection bag is attached. It is very desirable to avoid any additional stress or even pain for the skin of the wearer which may be particularly sensitive due to contact with faecal matter or urine. Therefore, it is desirable to provide other and/or additional attachment means for a human waste collection bag, so that less or no adhesive can be employed.
Another problem well known in the art is that of the proper placement of a human waste collection bag, again in particular for those devices designed for adhesive attachment to the wearer's skin. Total or substantial misplacement of the device will lead to a severe misfunctioning, may it be leaking or may it even be unintentional detachment.
In view of the prior art there remains a need for an incontinence device which:                provides improved urine and faecal incontinence care        can be provided to suit individual incontinence needs        is environmentally friendly        provides high objective and subjective reassurance regarding leaking and unintentional detachment        is comfortable to wear, for bedridden, but also for active wearer's        engages in a reliable seal with the human body, while avoiding stress for the wearer's skin        can easily be positioned and applied        
These and other objectives are addressed by the present invention as apparent from the following description.